Obama? Just the Forgettable 1980s Boyfriend of a Landlord’s Tenant (College beard story falls apart)

NY Times ^ | 5/7/12 | JAMES BARRON

[jimbo123]

As a recent college graduate holding down his first job in the 1980s, Barack Obama did not make much of an impression on someone who knew the ways of the world: His girlfriend’s landlord.

“I can honestly say that I do not remember him,” said Ralph Allen, who owned the brownstone in Park Slope, Brooklyn, where Mr. Obama’s girlfriend at the time, Genevieve Cook, rented the top-floor apartment — an apartment Mr. Obama shared with her in late 1984. “Maybe we met while I was sitting out on the stoop one night. Who knows.”

[ETL]

Are they holding hands?

I don't think so. It is a weird pic, however. Body language is on the creepy side.
__________________________________________

What 2 normal straight men sit THAT close on a couch with ALL that room available?

I assume they moved in close for the pic. But THAT friggin close?

Based on another Obama-male friend relationship, it certainly does at least make one pause to think something 'funny' might be going on:

“The second time I went out to California to attend Mohammad Hassan Chandoo’s graduation from Occidental College, Obama was enjoying the lavish lifestyle being financed by his friend and roommate at the time - Hassan Chandoo. The wealthy patron provided Obama access to big houses, lavish parties & had him dressed in the slickest clothes. I could have sworn they were both Gay & wealthy.”

Those were some of the initial observations by Dr. John C. Drew, PhD, on his second encounter with Barack Obama who was attending Occidental College at the time. ..."

http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/5257893-dr-john-c-drew-and-barack-obama-the-chance-encounter-at-occidental-college

[catfish1957]

I assume they moved in close for the pic. But THAT friggin close?

Damn right, that violates Manrule no 27... No posing for pictures within arms length of another male. Violaters risk accusations of massive gayness.

This is almost as bad as peeing in the next urinal I tell ya.

[ETL]

This is almost as bad as peeing in the next urinal I tell ya.

Especially when there are other urinals available.

[Baynative]

The Sarah Palin example is an even better one. That reminded me of the story they broke during the primaries about Rick Santorum's wife once living with a pro choice professor during her college years. I have that feeling that didn't come from opposition research.

I only hope the Romney campaign is as brutal on Obama with so much stuff to "share" with the public. I also hope this election is as much a referendum on the media as Obama.

[Sirius Lee]

As a recent college graduate holding down his first job in the 1980s,

A job in Connecticut. I mean he has a CT SSN after all.

The only job he ever had was polishing knobs.

[Sirius Lee]

No one remembers him. No one.

tinfoil> I'm going to say it. I think the kenyan is a graduate of the CIA's "The Finders" program. I don't think the CIA, or aspects of it, work for America, but rather for the Old Money Families whose agenda is to take out the Constitution and replace it with global fascism lite - or heavy - it remains to be seen. And the guy running against him works for the same folks, but willingly, not as a puppet. /tinfoil>

[GOPJ]

Drew says that Obama was in complete 100% agreement with his Marxist college professors who wanted a revolution in this country to overturn the power structure. He was consumed with the notion of wealth redistribution & more affirmative action programs to bring about less inequality and more income equality. He espoused the John Rawls Theory of Justice and his ‘veil of ignorance theory.

This "veil" is one that essentially blinds people to all facts about themselves that might cloud what notion of justice is developed.

"No one knows his place in society, his class position or social status, nor does anyone know his fortune in the distribution of natural assets and abilities, his intelligence, strength, and the like. I shall even assume that the parties do not know their conceptions of the good or their special psychological propensities. The principles of justice are chosen behind a veil of ignorance."

This helps explain why it's difficult to understand where Obama's coming from... The 'veil of ignorance' theory's kind of interesting...

[nascarnation]

I got the name from the picture caption in the New York Times.

Of course as someone said “you can’t even believe the page numbers in the New York Times”

[mojito]

Curious this should be in the NYT.

The landlord remembers the tenant clearly, but not that she was later shacking up with her black boyfriend in his building?

I would think that might be something you’d remember.

[Spunky]

I have been listening to Rush Limbaugh this morning and LOL! Several times he has said Obama is about ready to come out of the closet. He laughs then says not quite yet, but he is about ready to endorse GAY MARRIAGE.

[bgill]

Mr. Allen remembers the tenant clearly, but not an African-American moving into his house? This was not a typical apartment, you had to walk through the downstairs living quarters to get to it.

The landlord and his wife never saw Hussein coming in their front door and never wondered about squeaking bedsprings? Not only that but he goes on to say she had the small bedroom so, that bit about her opening to door to Hussein-a-hunk's room and it stinking to high heaven is bs. She would have written it as "her" room or "their" room but definitely not soley his. Also, in those days wouldn't she have had to sign a morality clause in her contract with the school? Shacking up with some guy, especially a black guy would have gotten her fired which would have resulted in the university at least calling in daddy's wallet to pay for a building. Ok, say that he was there, then was the oh so poor drugged out foreign student living off her daddy's dime rent free? If so, no wonder he and Moochelle are so experienced at living it up on the taxpayers' dime.

[justiceseeker93]

The guess here is that Maraniss didn't bother to check the accuracy of the alleged facts that wound up in his "biography" of Obama. The New York Slimes is implicitly confirming that when they report that Obama's supposed landlord in the early 80s denies having known him (reminiscent of his purported Columbia classmates from the immediately preceding time frame).

They are probably looking to promote the Maraniss book because it is the friendliest Obama biography ever written by someone other than Obama himself.

[justiceseeker93]

Please see my post # 52.

[x]

The guess here is that Maraniss didn't bother to check the accuracy of the alleged facts that wound up in his "biography" of Obama.

Probably not. But just what's at issue here? She was a woman. They knew each other. They may have gone out a few times. Did Obama or Maraniss claim there was any more to it than that?

This is "the other shoe dropping." The first shoe was that the girl in the book was a "composite" based on other women Obama had dated. The second shoe dropping is the admission that there wasn't much of anything going on with the women who were "composited" or "compressed": it was invention more than anything else.

But still, one doesn't have to jump to the conclusion that Obama is gay from that. Turning acquaintances into "girlfriends" based on very little interaction is something a lot of guys have done. It happens a lot in Nerdworld.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks justiceseeker93.